Raven Brother
by Jetainia
Summary: Elena learns about someone from the Salvatore brothers' past and a curse.


**Forum Block  
**Stacked With: Hogwarts; BAON; FPC; Snicket Fence; T3  
Individual Challenges: Short Jog; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux; Death's Inevitable Master (Y); New Fandom Smell (Y); Immortals Unite  
Representations: Harry Potter; Elena Gilbert; Damon Salvatore; Stefan Salvatore; Master of Death Harry Potter; Cursed Harry Potter  
Bonus Challenges: Found Family; Nontraditional; Second Verse (Not a Lamp)  
Tertiary Bonus Challenges: Toad  
Prompts: Vampire Diaries (auction); Human (365 words); "You can't stay mad forever." (Insane Prompts)  
Word count: 1,303  
Note: I haven't watched Vampire Diaries in a very long time so some things may be a bit off. Sorry about that.

* * *

The graveyard was as silent as it usually was, mist swirling above the ground and obscuring the earth. Elena sat on a fallen tree log and wrote in her journal. She liked the graveyard; it made her feel closer to the people she had lost. A raven perched on a branch above her and she gave it a small smile, setting aside her writing for a few moments.

The raven looked back at her as though it was sizing her up. Maybe it was, though she didn't think she had anything a bird would want. They seemed to be locked in a staring contest, human to bird, both of them curious. Eventually, a crunch of leaves brought them out of it and Elena turned to see Stefan approaching.

He smiled at her and started to speak before he noticed the raven still on the branch. He glared at it, as though the bird had personally offended him and held out a hand to Elena.

"Come on, Elena. Let's get out of here."

Elena took his hand and went with him happily. Every so often, Stefan would look back at the tree. When Elena checked to see what he was looking at, she saw that the raven was watching them leave. She wondered why Stefan seemed to be wary of the bird. Why would a raven put a vampire on edge?

That night, while she was working, she saw Damon talking with another man in a small corner booth. Damon was different to how he normally was; the Salvatore seemed more open and he gave more smiles than smirks. The way he was now, it would be easy to forget all of the things he had done to Elena for Katherine's sake.

She caught the attention of the server taking care of Damon's booth and asked, "Hey, do you know who's sitting with Damon Salvatore?"

The girl shrugged. "An old friend from what I can tell. I think I heard Salvatore call him Harry."

"Thanks."

Old friend… Vampire? She couldn't see a ring on his finger like the Salvatore's had to protect them from the sun but that didn't mean anything. It was dark outside currently so maybe Damon was just taking his friend out to see the sights while he wouldn't be killed by the sun. Or maybe he was plotting something, that was more Damon's style.

Elena tapped her fingers on the bar and had almost convinced herself to go over and say hello to Damon and his friend when she found her hands full of food.

"Get out there and do your job," she was told and Elena meekly went to do just that. She had been slacking enough as it was, she didn't need to be fired for thinking about Damon too much.

* * *

Elena had to duck as the door to the Salvatore house opened and a bird swooped in from behind her. Stefan huffed in annoyance beside her and marched inside, leaving Elena alone on the doorstep. She stared after her boyfriend as he tried to catch the raven that was fluttering in the hallway. With cautious steps, she entered and left the front door open in case Stefan managed to convince the bird to leave.

Stefan was leaping all over the hallway, dangling from the roof at points as he attempted to remove the raven. The raven seemed to be playing with him, staying in his reach before moving away quickly before Stefan could get a grasp on the feathers. Even with his vampiric abilities, he couldn't catch the raven. From the mezzanine above them came Damon's dry tone.

"Now, Stefan, is that any way to treat our brother?"

Wait, brother? Elena craned her head up so she could see Damon (his smirk in full force as he watched his brother race around the room) as confusion whirled around in her brain. Stefan stopped clambering over the furniture and walls to stand in the middle of the room, panting slightly, and glare at Damon.

"He is _not_ our brother. He never has been."

Damon gave a slight shrug and lifted an arm out so it lay level in the air. The raven flew to it and perched happily on the leather-clad arm.

"That's a bit rude. You were certainly happy to call him your brother a hundred years ago."

Somehow, Stefan's glare intensified and Elena felt slightly scared of what he would do. "That was before I knew _what_ he was, what he could _do_."

"You also know what it would cost him," Damon snapped back, his own glare rivalling that of Stefan's. "You can't stay mad forever."

The raven cawed and waddled up Damon's arm, preening his dark hair when it reached the shoulder. Stefan whirled around and clasped a hand around Elena's wrist, his grip tighter than it normally was.

"Because of him, I can," Stefan replied before heading out of the house. "We're leaving, Elena."

Elena could only nod and follow. She was pulled out of the front door—which was then slammed shut by Stefan—and down the street, struggling slightly to keep up. From the direction Stefan was walking, she gathered they were heading to her place. She hoped she would get some answers soon.

"What was that about?" she asked as Stefan pulled her along.

Stefan said nothing for a moment before biting out, "Harry."

Well that explained a lot. "And Harry's your brother?" she ventured.

"_No_." Stefan's voice was colder than she had ever heard it before.

She quickened her pace so she was in front of Stefan and then whirled around to stop him from walking. He glared down at the hand on his chest and seemed to be considering shoving it away before he sighed and looked at her with his gorgeous eyes.

"He was, a long time ago. He helped us, but not as much as he could have."

"What does that mean? And what does the raven have to do with anything? I saw Harry at work last night, he was human. Well, he looked human."

"Harry's got his own curse. He's a raven during the day and can only be human at night. He… He has some control over death and all that entails. He could have turned Damon and I human again, but he didn't. He didn't even offer or mention it while we stayed with him."

"Damon said it would have cost him," Elena said, remembering the words of the other Salvatore.

"Not as much as they like to make out. Harry would just be closer to the death dimension; it would have made him stronger, but he's convinced himself and Damon that it would be worse than us two staying vampires forever."

"Being closer to a dimension of death doesn't sound like a great thing," Elena couldn't help but point out.

Stefan snorted. "He would have to be a raven for longer, and he'd feel more death around the world than he does now. It's nothing."

Elena nodded but didn't quite agree. There was a lot of death happening all the time and being attuned to it wasn't something she would wish for anyone. Plus, she had seen the joy on Harry's face last night when he was with Damon, being human was a treasure to the man and she didn't think he should lose more of that just so two people could be human.

She slid her hand off Stefan's chest and followed him the rest of the way to her house. Her thoughts were back at Salvatore place with Damon and Harry. She silently wished them happiness and resolved to keep Stefan away from them as much as she could. She didn't know why Harry was in Mystic Falls, but she knew Stefan's anger couldn't be pleasant to deal with constantly.


End file.
